


Spoliers

by Crowlows19



Series: All in Due Time [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 13:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4393478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowlows19/pseuds/Crowlows19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to All in Due Time. Harry's acting strange and Tom just wants to know what's inside this stupid box.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spoliers

Tom Riddle was used to being quite bored.

He had always hated summers the most of any other time of year. Even before Hogwarts, summer had marked a long and seemingly never ending boredom from lack of classes. Usually, this was when he started torturing people, literally, simply to break up the monotony but this year he finally had something a little more interesting than counting the number of bricks that encompassed him in his room.

This summer he had Harry. He had not given the Gryffindor any sort of invitation to join him while he meandered around London, waiting for the start of his seventh year. Harry had simply shown up so suddenly that he was rather lucky that Tom had recognized him quickly enough to stop halfway through his curse.

“Well, hello to you too,” Harry had said cheekily, eyeing Tom’s wand with amusement. The Gryffindor raised a hand and forced the wand tip lower.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just came to say hello, is all,” Harry replied. “Missed you these last couple of weeks.”

Tom eyed him. People often said they missed him when he boarded the Hogwarts Express but that was mostly because it was expected. You didn’t just not tell Tom Riddle you were glad to see him again. However, it felt a little more sincere from the Gryffindor. Perhaps it was the sparkling eyes or the goofy smile or the fact that he hadn’t seemed at all surprised by Tom’s reaction to his sudden appearance but dammit, Tom believed him.

“Fine,” he said, pocketing his wand and continuing on his way back to the orphanage. Harry trotted alongside. They walked in silence, an unusual occurrence. Normally, Harry would chatter about whatever was on his mind: Quidditch, whatever mean thing Tom’s friends had said to him, Quidditch, if he thought two of the professors were having an affair (yes), if Slytherin was going to win the House Cup (no), or if Tom thought that the Ravenclaw’s Seeker had a tendency to fly a bit to the left. Tom did not care for any of these topics of conversation but the less he said, the more Harry said and Tom got the distinct impression that Harry didn’t often get the opportunity to engage in chatter.

Tom had noticed that Harry was rather closed mouthed with anyone that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with. He was polite and engaging, but he wasn’t entirely present either. He was far more of a listener than a speaker. This was a behavior that was exactly opposite when it came to Tom. Harry was always talking about something. This was not the case today.

When they reached the gates of the orphanage, Tom stopped and placed a hand on Harry’s wrist to bring him up short.

“What’s wrong with you? Normally you at least tell me what you had for breakfast when we walk together.”

“Don’t you like it when people stop talking to you?” Harry asked.

“Yes, but for you it’s concerning,” he replied. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Harry said quickly, kissing him on the cheek, and disappearing around the corner before Tom could think to stop him.

How odd, he thought and then went inside. He was so wrapped up in Harry’s strange behavior that it was a rather long while before he turned his thoughts to how Harry had been able to find him in the first place.

00000

Tom didn’t see Harry again until the Hogwarts Express was already halfway to Hogwarts. He was in his usual carriage with the normal assortment of purebloods and hanger-ons. He had been listening to Rosier tell him about everything he missed regarding Grindelwald when the window next to him opened and Harry Tempus slid into the compartment through that open window, broom in hand and rucksack slung over his shoulders. Since the train was moving, Tom considered this a very dangerous thing to do.

“What are you doing?” he seethed, ignoring the wide eyed stares as Harry opened Tom’s trunk-without permission-and slipped something inside.

“Missed the train,” Harry said simply. “Had to catch up somehow and I’m all out of flying cars. See ya!”

“Harry!” Tom snapped, following the wayward Gryffindor into the corridor and slamming the door to the compartment shut behind him, a clear sign that they were not to be followed.

“Harry! Stop! I still have the authority to deduct points from you!”

This seemed to reach Harry in a way that nothing else could and Tom idly wondered how he’d control the other boy once they were out of Hogwarts and away from point systems.

“Whaaaaat?” Harry practically sang, as he turned around to face the very irate Slytherin.

“Why did you miss the train?”

“Because they didn’t let me out on time.”

“Out of where?”

“Azkaban.”

“What were you doing in Azkaban?” Tom asked, thoroughly shocked. Of all the things that Harry could have told him, this was the one thing that Tom hadn’t expected.

“Stuff,” Harry replied shortly.

“What kind of stuff?” Tom snapped, stepping closer so that they could talk more quietly. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Harry said, but his hands were fidgeting with the hem of his shirt and he wasn’t quite looking Tom in the eye. Tom leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips. Harry seemed to relax somewhat and leaned into him. Then he leaned in a little further and hugged Tom, something he had never really done outside of the Room of Requirement. Tom had never felt worry for another human being before this moment but he was genuinely concerned at this point.

“What happened?” he asked again.

“Nothing,” Harry said, pulling away swiftly and avoiding Tom’s eye. He went up a few carriages and slid into the one that Tom knew contained his Gryffindor friends.

00000

Tom didn’t get a chance to see what Harry had slipped into his trunk until after the Welcoming Feast. He left immediately after Dippet dismissed them, ignoring both his prefect duties and his friends. When he got to the Slytherin dorms, he knew that his roommates wouldn’t immediately come to bed so intent they would be to catch up with what the girls had been doing over the summer. He would likely have at least thirty minutes.

He threw open his trunk and found a sealed metal box. There were no seams that would indicate it could be opened but when he shook it he could clearly hear something inside. It had to open somehow, but there was no way he would be able to crack it in what little time he had. He wasn’t even sure what metal the box was made of. If he just started casting spells at it, there was no telling what would happen to the box or to him.

Feeling more curious than ever, Tom slipped it under a pile of old potions notes in the bottom of his trunk. Everyone in Slytherin knew that touching his things would result in a very serious curse. It would be safe enough there until Harry would either tell him what it was (Tom was not giving it back without answers) or he could figure it out on his own.

00000

Unfortunately, his preparation for NEWTs was already threatening to consume most of his time, if not all of it. He would likely be unable to devote any significant amount of time to getting into Harry’s box. And it was also unlikely that he was going to get Harry to help him out either.

The Gryffindor was so obviously avoiding him that even the densest Hufflepuff was able to cotton on without having to be clued in. The first time it happened was outside the Charms classroom, one of the few classes the Gryffindors and Slytherins shared. Harry had turned the corner, turned bright red, stammered out a general hello, and fled into the classroom. At the end of last year, Harry had taken to sitting next to Tom in Transfiguration. This was mostly to annoy Tom’s fellow Slytherins and to have a better platform in which to prank Tom. He was now within reach to poke Tom’s ribs, pull his hair, and draw doodles on the corners of his parchment.

However, Harry made the very conspicuous decision to sit with a Gryffindor that first morning. It did not bother Tom; in fact, the class’s reaction was downright amusing. There was an instant whispering between classmates as they tried to figure out when the two of them had fallen out.

“Did you guys get in a domestic?” Abraxas asked, highly concerned. Of all the Slytherins in Tom’s clique, he was the only one who actually enjoyed Harry’s company, something that seemed to greatly confuse the time traveling moron.

“I’m not sure,” Tom replied, truthfully. It was true that there had been a lot of emotions on the train, many of which Tom was still puzzling out, but he wouldn’t classify that as a fight. And Harry was hardly a person to be embarrassed about much. So what was going on with him? It would prove difficult to find out.

00000

The second time Harry blatantly avoided him was when he opened a door from an empty classroom where he and some Gryffindors were studying. Tom and Dolohov just happened to be walking by on their way to the library. Harry saw him, stopped abruptly, ignored the girl who ran straight into his back, and slammed the door so hard that the noise echoed through the corridor for a few seconds.

“Subtly isn’t his strong suit is it?” Dolohov asked, very sarcastically.

“No.”

Tom walked away with as much dignity as he could.

00000

The third time, Tom saw Harry literally dive into a hidden passageway. The fourth time it happened they had almost bumped into each other. Harry squeaked and disappeared so quickly Tom was almost willing to believe that Harry had disapparated. The fifth time it happened in the library where Harry sank so low in his chair that he was practically under the table by the time Tom and the Slytherins passed him on the way to their usual table. He was still there when they settled in and the other boys seemed more intent on Harry than on their studies.

“What the hell is wrong with him?” Dolohov asked.

“How should I know?” Rosier snapped. “Ask Tom. He dated him.”

“I am still dating him,” Tom corrected without even looking up.

“Seriously?” Abraxas said, surprised. “Could have sworn his behavior was because you guys broke up.”

“No.”

“Well, then,” Dolohov continued. “What the hell is wrong with him?”

“I’m sure he’ll share when he’s ready to,” Tom said, wondering when it had become normal to discuss his love life with these boys. Normally, he wouldn’t have been inclined to share but it also didn’t seem prudent to cut them out completely. If they didn’t think they had more information than the rest of the school he might have trouble with them later on. Loyalty was funny that way. Unless it was Harry’s.

“Why don’t you just ask?” Abraxas asked rather stupidly in Tom’s opinion. He finally looked up to glare at the blond who flinched away. What Abraxas couldn’t know was that Tom was entirely uninterested in approaching Harry over this matter. Harry knew he could come to him when he eventually worked up the courage to do so.

Tom just had to wait him out.

00000

Harry didn’t come to the Room of Requirement that Sunday evening for their usual meeting. Nor did he come to any of the subsequent Sundays and Tom took the time in the empty room to fiddle with the box Harry had hidden in his trunk. Not only was he entirely stumped on how to open the thing but he was also entirely stumped as to why Harry would give it to him to keep if he was done with the relationship.

Harry’s insistent avoidance of all things Tom Riddle had given the very clear impression to the school that they were broken up. Tom was inclined to believe that something else entirely was going on. Harry was playing some sort of game, Tom just had to figure out the rules.

00000

“I heard something,” Avery said one late night in the common room. Tom had thought he was the only one there and looked up from his studying to eye his fellow Slytherin.

“What have you heard?” Tom asked, curiously, gesturing for Avery to join him at the table.

“It’s about Harry Tempus,” Avery replied, and Tom was honestly surprised. These days people were downright terrified to mention Harry Tempus within Tom Riddle’s hearing. Not only had Harry continued to avoid Tom at all costs, he was reportedly dating a Hufflepuff. This was something that Tom had not been able to confirm but there was some evidence that it was true and even the thought had left him in such a towering mood that the Slytherins were  wondering if he was about to commit murder. Abraxas had even asked if he was going to re-open the Chamber of Secrets.

“What?” he snapped. Avery looked very nervous but bravely continued on.

“My father has a friend in the Auror department and he let me know something about Harry Tempus. I had mentioned that you and he were together and since Father knows that we’re friends he thought I’d like to know.”

“What?”

“Harry Tempus did a small sentence in Azkaban over the summer for breaking and entering.”

“Where did he break in?” Tom asked. He had already known about the Azkaban sentence but what it had been for had been entirely new. He had reached out to his own contacts in the Ministry but whatever the time traveler had done had been covered up to avoid a scandal of some sort.

“Azkaban,” Avery said.

“He broke into Azkaban?” Tom asked, hoping he hadn’t heard that right. Avery nodded.

“Yes, apparently to have a lovely chat with one of the prisoners there,” he said. “According to Father’s friend, nobody even knew he was there until the guards fled the place. He casts quite a powerful Patronus, that one.”

Tom took a moment to feel a little proud about Harry’s ability to beat back the Dementors on their own turf.

“What prisoner was he visiting?” he asked.

“Ah, see, that’s the funny thing. It turns out that it was another time traveler.”

“There’s two?” Tom asked, his homework lay forgotten and he could not recall a time when he was so interested in what someone had to say.

“Yes. Father says the Aurors believe he was sent back the same way Harry was only he landed six months after Harry got here. The Unspeakables tried to integrate him the same way they had done with Harry but he went completely nuts and killed a whole slew of Muggles for sport. They threw him in Azkaban and covered it all up.”

“And what did Harry want with him?” Tom asked, knowing instinctively that it was highly unlikely that Harry and this prisoner were friends or even allies.

“Harry Oblivated him,” Avery said. “It was really strong too. Guy doesn’t have a clue what his own name is and the Unspeakables are refusing to release the name he gave them to any other Department in the Ministry. Apparently, they won’t even tell the Minister.”

“How did Harry find out about him?”

“No clue,” Avery said. Apparently they was reaching the end of his scraps of information. “But Father did say that the Unspeakables put Harry into Azkaban to remind him to play by the rules.”

“And he wasn’t expelled?” Tom questioned. He had been wondering about that for some time now. Being put into Azkaban, for any reason, was grounds for expulsion.

“No, he was never officially charged. Never had a trial and never tried to tell anyone either. No one knows.”

But this wasn’t true. Tom knew. Harry had told him, right before he had started avoiding him. Avery left him there to ponder what he’d been told, knowing when he was no longer wanted. Harry had given him a box. What was in that box? And what had that prisoner known that was so bad it had to be erased? Had Harry’s sudden visit in London been a last goodbye since no reasonable person could expect to survive attacking Azkaban alone?

00000

Tom watched Harry carefully over the next few weeks. The Gryffindor was sullen, moody, and uncharastically mean. He was losing friends and fast. And the worse thing was that Harry seemed to be under incredible strain and he seemed to be cracking.

Late one night, while he was patrolling, Tom came across Harry in the corridor, simply staring out a window. Tom approached him cautiously but loudly trying not to startle him.

“Harry?” he asked. Harry seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in and turned to give Tom a cheeky smile. After so long without this attention, Tom couldn’t help but feel a little of the weight lift off his shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Just wanted to see you. I know your route you know.”

Of this Tom was very familiar. Harry used to sneak out at night to accompany him on his patrols. He had never been invited of course, but Tom had never told him to get lost either.

“I know,” he replied and reached forward to lace their fingers together. “I also know about Azkaban.”

“Got friends in the Ministry?” Harry fired back. He stepped forward until he was crowding Tom’s space, something he liked to do. One could always tell Harry’s relationship to a person based on how close he got. He would stand closer to a friend than he would an acquaintance. But when he was next to Tom he practically latched onto him as if there could be no space between them. Tom had rather missed that.

“I do in fact,” he said, not bothering with the particulars. Harry didn’t ask. He kissed him instead. Tom had started this conversation with every intention of getting to the bottom of the mystery that was Harry Tempus. Instead, they ended up snogging for ten minutes before Harry was frightened off by the heavy breathing of the rapidly aging Professor Merryweather.

00000

“Do you still have my box?” Harry asked. It was the next week and Tom was in a study group in the library.

“Busy,” Tom replied distractedly. Harry forcibly closed the book Tom was using, silently demanding he be paid attention to. Normally, this behavior wouldn’t phase the others who had grown so used to the two of them bickering that they could ignore it. However, the obvious absence and sudden reappearance of Harry Tempus to his usual relationship status with Tom Riddle was still attracting attention from everyone from the first years to the Professors.

“What do you want?” Tom snapped, irritable from all of the work he’d been putting into his school work.

“My box,” Harry replied. “Where is it?”

“I threw it out,” Tom said, being difficult just for the sake of it. If Harry wanted his box back, he should have asked politely.

“No you didn’t, liar. I need it back.”  
“That’s not my problem.”

“Ugh,” Harry grunted, threw his hands up dramatically, and stormed out of the library.

The next few weeks consisted of Harry attempting to get his box back. Tom had outright forbidden any of the Slytherins to help him which meant that even if Harry was inclined to use blackmail, they would all be too terrified to give in. Harry would approach him randomly, grab his bag, search it, and leave without a word. It looked very odd and Tom bore it with a remarkable amount of grace considering how utterly annoying it was.

One time Tom caught him reaching into his bookbag in the middle of Charms class. He had very quietly cast a curse that had Harry squirming in his seat for the rest of the class period. Afterwards, he had caught up with Tom, grabbed him by his robes, and threw him bodily into an unused room, shutting the door in Abraxas’s face. When he turned around he was hunched over and grabbing at his crotch.

“Fix it,” he seethed.

“Fix what, dear?” Tom said, playing innocent and trying not to laugh.

“Whatever you did! Help!” Harry cried and he sounded so pathetic that Tom couldn’t help but smile and raise his wand very casually to cast the countercurse.

“Oh thank god!” Harry exclaimed as he started to feel some relief. “What the hell? I’m just taking back what’s mine!”

“If you still wanted it, you shouldn’t have given it away.”

“I did not,” he protested, green eyes snapping angrily. “Keeping it my dorm is too dangerous. Everyone knows you’re the scariest Slytherin in that House. Nobody was gonna touch it if you had it.”

“Well then, you should have explained that to me instead of leaving it in my trunk and then ignoring me for all those months. You would probably already have the box back if you had been entirely truthful.”

“So you’ll give it back?” Harry asked hopefully, clearly missing the point.

“No,” Tom replied and left the room before Harry could punch him.

00000

Late that afternoon, the seventh year Slytherins came into a very nervous common room. All frantic whispers stopped when they caught sight of him. He simply sighed.

“What happened?” he asked, nearly sounding bored.

“Tempus broke into your room,” Walburga replied, happy to impart this knowledge. She had been devastated by Tom and Harry’s reconciliation having falsely believed their stony silence was her cue to swoop in and claim him. He had let her hang around for a little while before dumping her on Rosier who was already bored of hearing her opinion on all things Riddle.

“What?” he asked, completely surprised.

“Yes, he walked into the common room and up to your room. I haven’t been in myself, of course, but we heard that he really destroyed the place.” Tom swept past her smirking figure and into the corridor leading to his dorm. When he got there he found that Walburga had indeed been right. His trunk was overturned, his bed hangings were askew, and his things were scattered all over the floor.

“No!” he snapped, shoved his bag into Dolohov’s arms, and frantically searched for the box. It was gone. “Damn him!”

“What did he take?” Dolohov asked, concerned at the amount of emotion Tom was giving the situation.

“My leverage,” he snapped and swept back towards the common room. “Who saw him come in?” he shouted when he got there and everyone immediately turned towards a scared looking second year.  

“H-he just came in,” the girl said. “I asked him how he got in and he said it wasn’t like the Slytherin common room was Gringotts or something.”

“Did he say anything else?” Tom asked.

“He said to tell you that you could change the password all you want, he’ll always be able to get in.”

Tom narrowed his eyes and the girl gulped, clearly thinking she had displeased him. Really he was pondering Harry Tempus. How had he gotten in? Why did passwords not seem to matter?

00000

When they met in the Room of Requirement that Sunday evening Harry was still mad at him for the curse he’d placed on him in Charms class.

“If you’re going to be mean to it, you don’t get any of it,” he said crossly and Tom couldn’t help but smirk.

“How did you get in my dorm?” he asked, standing in front of Harry as he slumped in an armchair. Honestly, he had the worst posture Tom had ever seen.

“I’m a super secret agent,” Harry told him, smirking. He clearly wasn’t up for telling Tom his secrets. Harry stood up and crowded into his space, wrapping his arms around the Slytherin tightly, and drawing them close together.

“What’s in the box Harry?” Tom asked. He was rather surprised when he got an answer. He’d been prepared to do at least another half hour of wheedling, threatening, and manipulating.

“Something from the future.”

“What is it?”

“A weapon actually,” he said. “A friend of mine in Ravenclaw cooked it up. It’s shrunk down when it’s in the box but take it out and it’s a pretty cool weapon. I used it to, um, do stuff.”

“What kind of weapon is it?” Tom asked, intensely curious.

“Spoilers,” Harry smirked and then started to kiss his neck. This was a strong signal that the conversation was over. Tom would get the answers in due time. He always did.

 

 


End file.
